The State

The state gave the water-short city of Willits permission to accept an offer of water from the nearby camp of the San Francisco Bay Area Council of Boy Scouts. The Scout Council's help will be welcome, said City Manager Bill Van Orden, even though recent storms have temporarily eased the shortage in the 4,450-population city in Mendocino County. Van Orden said the water level in Willits' only reservoir in mid-November was below that reached in the 1976-77 drought.